I read widely and in most genres but romance and westerns. Here you'll find my reviews since 2007, with a few reviews of previously read books as well.

In 2012, I completed an "authors of the world" challenge, reading a book for every country (and a few other entities) by someone who'd lived there for at least two years. I expect to tag these books by challenge and country in the near future. I'm still refining my list by adding books that better meet my challenge criteria.

UzbekistanThis memoir works in some ways and not in others. Bibish begins her life story with some early brutalizations, moving chronologically through childhood, young adulthood, and to sometime the present. What is effective is the description of village life in Uzbekistan. However, the narrative's trajectory seems fairly random. Why does Bibish no longer dance? Why does she cease to teach? What are her relationships like? What "quest for freedom"? The story, for all its action, is curiously flat and, in the absence of a guiding theme or obtained moral, seems strangely pointless.